Ralph Richardson

Acting

Ralph Richardson

Born — Died

1902-12-19 — 1983-10-10

Place of birth

Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

80 titles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Sir Ralph David Richardson (19 December 1902 – 10 October 1983) was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films. Richardson first became known for his work on stage in the 1930s. In the 1940s, together with Laurence Olivier, he ran the Old Vic company. He continued on stage and in films into the early 1980s and was especially praised for his comedic roles. In his later years he was celebrated for his theatre work with his old friend John Gielgud. Among his most famous roles were Peer Gynt, Falstaff, John Gabriel Borkman and Hir…

Known for

Great Performances poster
6.1

The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.

Great Performances

1971

What's My Line? poster
7.0

Four panelists must determine guests' occupations - and, in the case of famous guests, while blindfolded, their identity - by asking only "yes" or "no" questions.

What's My Line?

1950

The Dick Cavett Show poster
6.8

The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks.

The Dick Cavett Show

1968

Play for Today poster
6.6

Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.

Play for Today

1970

Omnibus poster
7.2

Omnibus was an arts-based BBC television documentary series, broadcast mainly on BBC1 in the United Kingdom. The programme was the successor to the long-running arts-based series 'Monitor'. It ran from 1967 until 2003, usually being transmitted on Sunday evenings. During its 35-year history, the programme won 12 Bafta awards. Among the series' best remembered documentaries are Cracked Actor, a profile of David Bowie, and Rene Magritte, a graduate film by David Wheatley, 'Madonna: Behind the American dream', a film produced by Nadia Hagger, and a profile of the British film director Ridley Scott. For a season in 1982, the series was in a magazine format presented by Barry Norman. The series was replaced by 'Imagine' hosted by Alan Yentob.

Omnibus

1967

No artwork available
5.1

The BBC's flagship cinema review TV program featuring reviews of new releases, news items and interviews. The title of the program changes each year to incorporate the year of broadcast.

Film '72

1971

Film credits

1980s · 8 titles

Time Bandits poster
6.6

Young history buff Kevin can scarcely believe it when six dwarfs emerge from his closet one night. Former employees of the Supreme Being, they've purloined a map charting all of the holes in the fabric of time and are using it to steal treasures from different historical eras. Taking Kevin with them, they variously drop in on Napoleon, Robin Hood and King Agamemnon before the Supreme Being catches up with them.

Time Bandits

1981

Dragonslayer poster
6.6

A sorcerer and his apprentice are on a mission to kill an evil dragon to save the King’s daughter from being sacrificed according to a pact that the King himself made with the dragon to protect his kingdom.

Dragonslayer

1981

Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes poster
6.4

A shipping disaster in the 19th Century has stranded a man and woman in the wilds of Africa. The lady is pregnant, and gives birth to a son in their tree house. Soon after, a family of apes stumble across the house and in the ensuing panic, both parents are killed. A female ape takes the tiny boy as a replacement for her own dead infant, and raises him as her son. Twenty years later, Captain Phillippe D'Arnot discovers the man who thinks he is an ape. Evidence in the tree house leads him to believe that he is the direct descendant of the Earl of Greystoke, and thus takes it upon himself to return the man to civilization.

Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes

1984

Witness for the Prosecution poster
6.6

An ailing barrister is thrust back into the courtroom in what becomes one of the most unusual and eventful murder cases of the lawyer's career when he finds himself defending a man being tried for the murder of a socialite.

Witness for the Prosecution

1982

Give My Regards to Broad Street poster
5.2

When the mastertape of McCartney's latest album is misplaced, he must discover its whereabouts in less than 24 hours or else risk losing his recording company to the lowlife Mr. Rath.

Give My Regards to Broad Street

1984

Invitation to the Wedding poster
6.0

An American student arrives in England for the wedding of his room-mate's sister.

Invitation to the Wedding

1983

Laurence Olivier: A Life poster
10.0

A multi-award winning biography covering the life and career of legendary screen and stage actor/director Laurence Olivier.

Laurence Olivier: A Life

1982

Directed by William Wyler poster
NR

A documentary on the film director William Wyler (1902-1981), this feature was conceived by his daughter, Catherine, as a loving tribute. Utilizing a wealth of film clips, many in black and white, the movie features interviews with Bette Davis, Samantha Eggar, Greer Garson, Lillian Hellman, Audrey Hepburn, Charlton Heston, John Huston, Laurence Olivier, Gregory Peck, Ralph Richardson, Terence Stamp, Barbra Streisand, Billy Wilder, and the director himself, interviewed only a few days before he died in 1981.

Directed by William Wyler

1986

1970s · 16 titles

Watership Down poster
7.2

When the warren belonging to a community of rabbits is threatened, a brave group led by Fiver, Bigwig, Blackberry and Hazel leave their homeland in a search of a safe new haven.

Watership Down

1978

Rollerball poster
6.3

In a corporate-controlled future, an ultra-violent sport known as Rollerball represents the world, and one of its powerful athletes is out to defy those who want him out of the game.

Rollerball

1975

O Lucky Man! poster
6.8

An ambitious coffee salesman has a series of improbable and ironic adventures seemingly designed to challenge his naive idealism.

O Lucky Man!

1973

The Man in the Iron Mask poster
6.4

Years have passed since the Three Musketeers, Aramis, Athos and Porthos, have fought together with their friend, D'Artagnan. But with the tyrannical King Louis using his power to wreak havoc in the kingdom while his twin brother, Philippe, remains imprisoned, the Musketeers reunite to abduct Louis and replace him with Philippe.

The Man in the Iron Mask

1977

Tales from the Crypt poster
6.8

When a tourist group become lost within ancient catacombs, they meet the sinister Crypt Keeper, who tells them each their fate. The enigmatic figure's macabre stories involve a wife dabbling in murder, a retired sanitation worker targeted by his suspicious neighbors, and an adulterer who may face a fitting demise if the yarns come true.

Tales from the Crypt

1972

The Looking Glass War poster
5.7

When a Polish sailor jumps ship in Britain, a couple of local intelligence operatives keep him under surveillance. Soon, he’s recruited to infiltrate a missile installation outside of East Berlin and bring back photos of the new rockets.

The Looking Glass War

1970

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland poster
6.3

An all-star cast highlights this vibrant musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll's immortal tale. One day, plucky young Alice follows a white rabbit down a hole and discovers a world of bizarre characters.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

1972

Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? poster
6.2

Mrs Rosie Forrest, aka 'Auntie Roo', has a holiday tradition of inviting orphans to her mansion for a party. But Roo isn't completely sane; she lost her husband and is obsessed with her deceased daughter, whose corpse she still keeps in the house. When Katy Coombs sneaks into the party with her brother, Christopher, the deranged biddy abducts the young girl with the hopes of replacing her daughter.

Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?

1972

A Doll's House poster
5.4

Nora Helmer has years earlier committed a forgery in order to save the life of her authoritarian husband Torvald. Now she is being blackmailed, and lives in fear of her husband finding out, and of the shame such a revelation would bring to his career. But, when the truth comes out, Nora is shocked to learn where she really stands in her husband's esteem.

A Doll's House

1973

Twelfth Night poster
6.5

Sir Alec Guinness, Sir Ralph Richardson and Joan Plowright star in this merry on-stage mix-up of identity, gender and love in Tony Award-winner John Dexter’s production of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Originally broadcast on Britain’s ITV, this classic performance captures all the slapstick, puns and double entendres that have amazed and amused audiences for over four hundred years.

Twelfth Night

1970

Frankenstein: The True Story poster
7.5

Victor Frankenstein witnesses his creation turn uncontrollable after he's duped by his associate, Dr. Polidori.

Frankenstein: The True Story

1974

No Man's Land poster
7.0

'No Man's Land' is a play by Harold Pinter written in 1974 and first performed in 1975. In this 1978, TV adaptation, a seedy poet shows up at the home of a rich writer and they start reminiscing about the 'past,' in a menacing, Pinteresque fashion.

No Man's Land

1978

Lady Caroline Lamb poster
5.9

Lady Caroline Lamb, dissatisfied in her marriage, has an affair with the dashing Romantic poet Lord Byron.

Lady Caroline Lamb

1972

Eagle in a Cage poster
6.0

1815. A soldier becomes the governor of St. Helena and jailer of Napoleon

Eagle in a Cage

1972

Home poster
7.8

David Storey's adaptation of his award winning play for the BBC's Play for Today series.

Home

1972

O Lucky Man! Innovations in Entertainment poster
2.0

A behind the scenes look at the making of the 1973 film “O Lucky Man!"

O Lucky Man! Innovations in Entertainment

1973

1960s · 17 titles

Doctor Zhivago poster
7.6

The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.

Doctor Zhivago

1965

Battle of Britain poster
6.8

In 1940, the Royal Air Force fights a desperate battle against the might of the Luftwaffe for control of the skies over Britain, thus preventing an attempted Nazi invasion.

Battle of Britain

1969

The 300 Spartans poster
6.5

The 300 Spartans is an account of the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae, in which the Greek Spartan King Leonidas, played by Richard Egan, led a remarkably small number of Greek Sparta to victory over an invading Persian army led by evil King Xerxes that was thought to number over 25,000. This spectacular conflict gave the Grecians enough time to organize a force to ultimately repel the Persians, and thus change the course of Western civilization.

The 300 Spartans

1962

Exodus poster
6.7

Ari Ben Canaan, a passionate member of the Jewish paramilitary group Haganah, attempts to transport 600 Jewish refugees on a dangerous voyage from Cyprus to Palestine on a ship named the Exodus. He faces obstruction from British forces, who will not grant the ship passage to its destination.

Exodus

1960

Chimes at Midnight poster
7.2

Henry IV usurps the English throne, sets in motion the factious War of the Roses and now faces a rebellion led by Northumberland scion Hotspur. Henry's heir, Prince Hal, is a ne'er-do-well carouser who drinks and causes mischief with his low-class friends, especially his rotund father figure, John Falstaff. To redeem his title, Hal may have to choose between allegiance to his real father and loyalty to his friend.

Chimes at Midnight

1965

Khartoum poster
6.4

English General Charles George Gordon is appointed military governor of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan by the Prime Minister. Ordered to evacuate Egyptians from the Sudan, Gordon stays on to protect the people of Khartoum, who are under threat of being conquered by a Muslim army.

Khartoum

1966

Our Man in Havana poster
6.7

Jim Wormold is an expatriate Englishman living in pre-revolutionary Havana with his teenage daughter Milly. He owns a vacuum cleaner shop but isn’t very successful so he accepts an offer from Hawthorne of the British Secret Service to recruit a network of agents in Cuba.

Our Man in Havana

1960

The Movie Orgy poster
6.8

Clips from assorted television programs, B-movies, commercials, music performances, newsreels, bloopers, satirical short films and promotional and government films of the 1950s and 1960s are intercut together to tell a single story of various creatures and societal ills attacking American cities.

The Movie Orgy

1968

Oh! What a Lovely War poster
6.6

The working-class Smiths change their initially sunny views on World War I after the five boys of the family witness the harsh reality of trench warfare.

Oh! What a Lovely War

1969

The Bed Sitting Room poster
5.9

In the hazy aftermath of World War III, the fallout from a 'nuclear misunderstanding' is producing strange mutations amongst the survivors, and the noble Lord Fortnum finds himself transforming into a bed sitting room.

The Bed Sitting Room

1969

Long Day's Journey Into Night poster
7.0

An Irish miser, his morphine addicted wife, their debauched older son, and a gravely ill younger son. A quiet Connecticut vacation home on one foggy day in August 1912 becomes the backdrop for domestic decline.

Long Day's Journey Into Night

1962

Woman of Straw poster
6.2

Anthony Richmond schemes to get the fortune of his tyrannical, wheelchair-using tycoon uncle Charles Richmond by persuading Maria, a nurse he employs, to marry him.

Woman of Straw

1964

The Wrong Box poster
6.4

In Victorian England, a fortune now depends on which of two brothers outlives the other—or can be made to have seemed to do so.

The Wrong Box

1966

Heart to Heart poster
8.0

A television interviewer is determined to get a coup on a dodgy cabinet minister.

Heart to Heart

1962

Oscar Wilde poster
5.2

England, 1891. Ascending writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) meets Lord Alfred Douglas, a young nobleman. Over the years, they will maintain an intimate relationship that will be openly criticized by Alfred's father, the Marquis of Queensberry, in such a harsh way that Wilde, instigated by Alfred, decides to sue Queensberry in 1895, accusing him of defamation.

Oscar Wilde

1960

Midas Run poster
4.7

A veteran secret service officer from Britain hijacks a government shipment of $15 million of gold out of an irritation for never being knighted.

Midas Run

1969

David Copperfield poster
5.6

A young man journeys from a difficult childhood to maturity, exploring social injustice, personal development, and the complexities of human relationships.

David Copperfield

1969

1950s · 6 titles

Richard III poster
7.2

Having helped his brother King Edward IV take the throne of England, the jealous hunchback Richard, Duke of Gloucester, plots to seize power for himself. Masterfully deceiving and plotting against nearly everyone in the royal court, including his eventual wife, Lady Anne, and his brother George, Duke of Clarence, Richard orchestrates a bloody rise to power before finding all his gains jeopardized by those he betrayed.

Richard III

1955

Outcast of the Islands poster
5.8

After financial improprieties are discovered at the Eastern trading company where he works, Peter Willems flees the resulting disgrace and criminal charges. He persuades the man who gave him his start in life, the merchant ship captain Lingard, to bring him to a trading post on a remote Indonesian island where he can hide out.

Outcast of the Islands

1951

The Sound Barrier poster
6.5

A young RAF pilot tests his father-in-law’s prototype supersonic aircraft to the limit, at a time of intense development in the field of aviation, just as commercial jet airliners are about to enter service.

The Sound Barrier

1952

The Holly and the Ivy poster
6.5

An English clergyman's neglect of his grown children, in his zeal to tend to his parishioners, comes to the surface at a Christmas family gathering.

The Holly and the Ivy

1952

Smiley poster
7.1

Smiley Greevins is a cheeky, mischievous, imaginative little boy who lives in the small town of Murrumbilla in the Australian outback. His father Bill is a poor drover who is often away from home. Much to the exasperation of his overworked wife, Ma Greevins, Bill is also very fond of the drink. Smiley is determined to buy himself a push bike and so he takes on odd jobs in an effort to save up enough money. But Smiley always seems to get caught up in some sort of misadventure. Smiley is a classic Australian film that will delight audiences of all ages.

Smiley

1956

Home at Seven poster
6.5

Unable to recall the past 24 hours, a British bank clerk is the prime suspect for a robbery/murder.

Home at Seven

1952

1940s · 6 titles

The Fallen Idol poster
7.2

Phillipe, the son of an ambassador in London, hero-worships his father's butler Baines. His perception of the man changes when he accidentally discovers the secret that Baines keeps and witnesses the consequences that adults' lies can cause.

The Fallen Idol

1948

Anna Karenina poster
6.0

In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to whom she's immediately attracted— but in St. Petersburg’s high society, a relationship like this could destroy a woman’s reputation.

Anna Karenina

1948

The Heiress poster
7.8

In 1840s New York, the uneventful and boring days of the daughter of a wealthy doctor come to an end when she meets a dashing poorer man — who may or may not be after her inheritance.

The Heiress

1949

The Day Will Dawn poster
6.0

When Hitler invades Poland, sports journalist Colin Metcalfe (Hugh Williams) is unexpectedly reassigned as a foreign correspondent in Norway. En route, his ship is attacked by a German U-boat, but his warning to the Royal Navy is dismissed and he loses his post. With the German invasion of Norway soon after, Metcalfe returns, determined to uncover enemy operations and strike back against the occupiers.

The Day Will Dawn

1942

School for Secrets poster
7.2

Wartime tale of a group of British scientists efforts to develop the first radar system. They did it just in time for it to be used in the Battle of Britain against the might of the Nazi Luftwaffe. Without it the little island could well have been overrun.

School for Secrets

1946

The Silver Fleet poster
6.4

The Silver Fleet was inspired by a true story from World War II. Holland now under German occupation, a Shipyard owner and Chief engineer Jaap van Leyden is summoned to build ships for the German war effort. The commission would allow Leyden to build sophisticated submarines whilst safeguarding jobs for the local Dutch workforce. A newly built U-boat, named U107 goes out on her first sea trial and is hijacked by a Dutch crew and they re-route the vessel to England. As such it provided an opportunity to refuel patriotism in the face of a seemingly interminable war and almost unbearable civilian hardship.

The Silver Fleet

1943

1930s · 7 titles

Series credits

Great Performances poster
6.1

The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.

Great Performances

1971

Great Performances poster
6.1

The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.

Great Performances

1971

What's My Line? poster
7.0

Four panelists must determine guests' occupations - and, in the case of famous guests, while blindfolded, their identity - by asking only "yes" or "no" questions.

What's My Line?

1950

The Dick Cavett Show poster
6.8

The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks.

The Dick Cavett Show

1968

Play for Today poster
6.6

Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.

Play for Today

1970

Omnibus poster
7.2

Omnibus was an arts-based BBC television documentary series, broadcast mainly on BBC1 in the United Kingdom. The programme was the successor to the long-running arts-based series 'Monitor'. It ran from 1967 until 2003, usually being transmitted on Sunday evenings. During its 35-year history, the programme won 12 Bafta awards. Among the series' best remembered documentaries are Cracked Actor, a profile of David Bowie, and Rene Magritte, a graduate film by David Wheatley, 'Madonna: Behind the American dream', a film produced by Nadia Hagger, and a profile of the British film director Ridley Scott. For a season in 1982, the series was in a magazine format presented by Barry Norman. The series was replaced by 'Imagine' hosted by Alan Yentob.

Omnibus

1967

Omnibus poster
7.2

Omnibus was an arts-based BBC television documentary series, broadcast mainly on BBC1 in the United Kingdom. The programme was the successor to the long-running arts-based series 'Monitor'. It ran from 1967 until 2003, usually being transmitted on Sunday evenings. During its 35-year history, the programme won 12 Bafta awards. Among the series' best remembered documentaries are Cracked Actor, a profile of David Bowie, and Rene Magritte, a graduate film by David Wheatley, 'Madonna: Behind the American dream', a film produced by Nadia Hagger, and a profile of the British film director Ridley Scott. For a season in 1982, the series was in a magazine format presented by Barry Norman. The series was replaced by 'Imagine' hosted by Alan Yentob.

Omnibus

1967

No artwork available
5.1

The BBC's flagship cinema review TV program featuring reviews of new releases, news items and interviews. The title of the program changes each year to incorporate the year of broadcast.

Film '72

1971

ABC Afterschool Special poster
6.5

Dramatically presented situations, often controversial, of interest to children and teenagers. Several episodes were either in animated form or presented as documentaries. Topics included illiteracy, substance abuse and teenage pregnancy.

ABC Afterschool Special

1972

Second City Television poster
7.8

Second City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.

Second City Television

1976

No artwork available
NR

Thursday Theatre is a British television anthology programme produced by and aired on the BBC from 1964–1965. The productions ranged in duration from 75 to 95 minutes. Out of the 23 episodes, 13 are believed lost, and one is incomplete.

Thursday Theatre

1964

Jesus of Nazareth poster
7.8

Dramatizes the Birth, Life, Ministry, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, largely according to the Holy Bible's New Testament Gospels.

Jesus of Nazareth

1977

Hallmark Hall of Fame poster
8.8

Long-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.

Hallmark Hall of Fame

1951

The Great War poster
8.3

Extensive archive footage and sound effects, linked with contemporary classic music of the era, brings to life the vast history of World War I, concentrated by the commentaries by Michael Redgrave, and some of the finest actors of the 20th-century.

The Great War

1964

No artwork available
NR

The World of Wodehouse was a comedy television series, based on the Blandings Castle and Ukridge comedy stories by P. G. Wodehouse. The series, which followed The World of Wooster, was shown on BBC Television during 1967 and 1968. Apart from one or more extracts from a solitary episode of Blandings Castle broadcast in February 1967, all episodes of both series are lost.

The World of Wodehouse

1967

Six Centuries of Verse poster
8.0

Sir John Gielgud is joined by an outstanding repertory of actors in this pioneering, imaginative series demonstrating the immense variety and emotional impact of English-language poetry, from the fourteenth century to the contemporary era.

Six Centuries of Verse

1984

Frankenstein: The True Story poster
8.4

Victor Frankenstein witnesses his creation turn uncontrollable after he's duped by his associate, Dr. Polidori.

Frankenstein: The True Story

1973

Wagner poster
6.8

A huge panorama of Wagner's life and work, from before the 1848 Revolution, through his exile in Switzerland, his rescue by the besotted King Ludwig II of Bavaria to the final triumph at Bayreuth.

Wagner

1983

No artwork available
NR

Blandings Castle, based on P. G. Wodehouse's short stories in the same shared universe, is half of the larger British anthology series The World of Wodehouse. The six-episode miniseries broadcast on BBC1 from 24 Februrary to 31 March 1967.

Blandings Castle

1967

Behind the camera